The arc - evolution and evaluation of all the hard work. Week 9

No project is ever really complete unless you get a real life assessment of all the work that was put in.

Well, i guess the hardest part is actually completing project....

Over the past 9 weeks, I've been blogging weekly based on a the Songwriters Association of Canada's challenge. It design was to take up your music career a notch... online.

We laid out goals in week one, my favourite week. I had to really think about what I wanted out of the challenge, and out of my music career! What are some specific measurable goals.? What do I want? Turns out I want several tangible things like Facebook friends and Twitter followers... but also I want to perform at festivals. How then do I make that happen. And that's when the hard work begins.... sticking to the plan. All folks have trouble sticking to it, artists in particular, our creative souls wants us to be free spirited beings.

Ironically, I've haven't had much trouble. Probably because I'm ridiculously organized to begin with. It also helps I just released an album and have been self promoting like crazy.

But the thing about the goal setting, why it's so important, is that it guided me.... outlined my path so I wasn't spinning my wheels – I've made that mistake in the past.

Overall, the best thing about the blogging challenge is that it got me blogging weekly. It started the habit... even now I'm starting to see the benefits. People, searching for something else entirely, stumble upon lindsaymay.com I can tell by my website traffic.

I had a similar feeling when I was in fourth year of university. Every weekly step builds on itself until all the tributaries feed into the same stream. Everything seems connected.

So now, here are the things I have done. New business cards with my elevator pitch. I'm making new one sheets for my upcoming music conference/trade shows. I'm going back to FanBridge so I can use their fan collector app to add fans. I think that is the best option.

I successfully got press for all four of my tour dates. Articles and blogs in the local papers. Yah me!

The next thing for me is going after my audience... now that I've figured out what and where it is. I'm applying for a Roots Showcase for the WCMA's, going to Canadian Country Music Week and OCFF.

My electronic press kit is updated, all my info is on my website and I am ridiculous about following up. Thank goodness for google calendar updates.

Thanks for reading and please stay tuned... if you haven't hear of me yet, give me six months!